Forsythe steps out with mariinsky By Matthew Brown for The St Petersburg Times

Groundbreaking choreographer William Forsythe says he was like "a reluctant bride" before the marriage of his contemporary aesthetic with the well-honed classicism of the Mariinsky Theater's ballet company.

For the lucky few in close proximity to the lovely city of St Petersburg, here is some performance information from the Mariinsky:

THE RUSSIAN PREMIERE OF BALLETS BY WILLIAM FORSYTHE

3rd March 2004,5th and 7th March as part of the IV International Ballet Festival MARIINSKY The Mariinsky Theatre is staging an unprecedented premiere - for the first time ever, a Russian ballet company will be performing ballets by WILLIAM FORSYTHE.

WILLIAM FORSYTHE can justly be called the true heir of George Balanchine, the 20th century's greatest choreographer, and, via Balanchine, of Marius Petipa - and thus of the great dance traditions of the Mariinsky Theatre. Forsythe, who set the course for the development of ballet at the close of the 20th and start of the 21st centuries, had previously never been to Russia. A planned installation by the Kremlin walls was forbidden by the authorities in Moscow. In 2002, he came to St Petersburg for the first time where he and four dancers from the Frankfurter Ballett amazed the public at the MARIINSKY ballet festival with the work Artifact-II. One year later, a group of Mariinsky Theatre dancers travelled to Forsythe's studio in Frankfurt. At last, the Mariinsky Theatre and Forsythe came to an agreement to stage three of his famous ballets at the Mariinsky Theatre.

The name of the ballet In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated came about by absolute chance. Katryn Bennets, head coach of the Frankfurter Ballett and Forsythe's assistant for the staging of In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated at the Mariinsky Theatre, recalls &uqot;The scene-painters were to have made a large number of golden objects for the world premiere in Paris. However, they only managed to make a few small 'trifles'. As a result, the enraged Forsythe hung two golden cherries in the middle of the totally empty stage - not very high up, just off the floor. And hence the name of the ballet: In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated. By the way, the staging at the Mariinsky Theatre will be using those very same cherries:" William Forsythe has slightly altered the name of the ballet In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated for the Mariinsky Theatre premiere: the Russian title of the work is Where the Golden Cherries are Hanging.

WILLIAM FORSYTHE was born in New York in 1949, and studied dance at the University of Jacksonville in Florida and later at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York. He began his dance career with the Joffrey Ballet before he moved to Europe in 1973, joining the Stuttgarter Ballett, first as a dancer and later (1976-1981) as a choreographer.

In 1976, Forsythe staged his first ballet - Urlicht - a duet to music by Mahler, which was a resounding success for the choreographer. Forsythe began to create works for the Stuttgarter Ballett, the Basel Ballet, the Bayerisches Staatsballett, the ballet company of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the Joffrey Ballet and the Nederlands Dans Theater.

A defining moment in Forsythe's creative life came with his collaboration (at the invitation of Rudolf Nureyev) with the ballet company of the Opйra de Paris, where he staged his famous In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated for rising star Sylvie Guillem.

In 1984, Forsythe was appointed Artistic Director of the Frankfurter Ballett. The twenty years his career has spun have seen the creation of such important works as Gänge (1982), Artifact (1984), Impressing the Czar (1988), Limb's Theorem (1991), The Loss of Small Detail (1991), Eidos:Telos (1995), Endless House (1999) and Kammer/Kammer (2000).

Forsythe's ballets are in the repertoires of the world's leading dance companies, among them the New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, London's Royal Ballet and the ballet company of the Opйra de Paris.

The production is being staged with the support of KULTUR-STIFTUNG DER DEUTSCHEN BANK

Organic Gestures The Mariinsky Theater's dancers pull off William Forsythe's experimental steps as if they've been steeped in modern ballet for years. By Raymond Stults for The Moscow Times

St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater could hardly have provided audiences with a greater contrast in dance than it did last Friday and Saturday at the opening performances of the Fourth International Mariinsky Ballet Festival.

Friday showcased a brilliantly conceived trio of plotless episodes by William Forsythe in the American choreographer's first work with a Russian company.

I'm pleased that Forsythe's choreography was such a hit with the Moscow Times' ballet correspondent.

He makes an intriguing statement about "The Vertigenous Thrill of Exactitude":

Quote:

However long Forsythe may have spent devising his steps, it hardly showed. They, like Schubert's music, seemed the result of a single unbroken flow of inspiration.

At a lecture demonstration at the Royal Opera House, Antony Rizzi from Ballett Frankfurt told us that Forsythe created the 1000's of steps in the 11-minute whirlwind that is "The Vertigenous Thrill of Exactitude" in a single day.

Let no-one now think that the Mariinsky (Kirov outside Russia) Ballet is a prisoner of its past.

...

In newspaper reports, the dancers spoke of aches in adapting to the Forsythe manner (with its unusual balances, its off-centre tensions, its vicious slice and slash of limb) but they showed in performance the most dazzling assurance and what I found was a delight in the challenges and rewards of the choreography.

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